Dave Chappelle talks about quitting show

Dave Chappelle has finally spoken about walking away from his hit Comedy Central series in 2005.

The comedian was on "Late Show with David Letterman" on Tuesday night and talked about leaving "Chappelle's Show" midway through its third season.

"Listen, here it is. Technically, I never quit. I'm seven years late for work," Chappelle said.

Great. Now go back and do some more Rick James.

C'mon -- you know it never gets old.

When he quit, Chappelle took off to South Africa. "I was there for two weeks," Chappelle said. "I mean, there's not too many good hiding places left in America."

Letterman asked Chappelle about accepting, then rejecting, the "enormous sum of money to continue doing the show" that Comedy Central offered after his second season, reportedly worth $50 million.

"It's very hard to go through something like this because no one's really done it before," Chappelle said. "There's not too many people who don't think I'm crazy. I look at it like this: I'm at a restaurant with my wife; we're at a nice restaurant; we're eating dinner. I look across the room, I say, 'You see this guy over here? He has $100 million and we're eating the same entree.' So OK, fine, I don't have $50 million or whatever it was. But say I have $10 million in the bank. The difference in lifestyle is miniscule. The only difference between having $10 million and $50 million is an astounding $40 million."

He then said, "Of course, I would like to have that money."

Then go back ... please?

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Chappelle was promoting his sold-out stand-up run at Radio City Music Hall from June 18 to 22 and a limited residency from June 24 to 26, alongside musicians such as The Roots and Busta Rhymes.

He admitted he may regret some of the choices he made when it came to the end of Chappelle's Show.

"It's a very complicated answer," he said, adding he "might be a happier person" if he stayed on the show. "There's no way of knowing."

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